Lee Belgium: Charity set up after boy's cancer death

A charity is being set up in memory of a boy who died after being treated for cancer three times.

Eight-year-old Lee Belgium, from Bristol, was in remission after chemotherapy when he died from an infection last month.

His mother, Claire Boxall, said she wanted to help other bereaved parents and "keep his name alive".

She said the charity would provide items, including teddy bears, to help families remember their loved ones.

"I want to help other kids and to keep his name alive," Ms Boxall said.

"I want to help cancer patients, heart patients and people who've lost their kids through accidents."

Ms Boxall said Lee Belgium Lasting Legacy would provide free haircuts for funerals, teddy bears with heart shaped lockets of hair, and pillows featuring photos of children parents have lost.

"It'll be nice knowing that other parents are getting the help and support we've got and to hopefully take a little bit of pain away," she said.

"We want to make sure Lee is still helping other kids out there."

Ms Boxall said her son was "still able to enjoy life" despite his illness.

"We went to Disneyland, and three weeks before he died we went to Torquay and he loved it," she said.

"He was doing anything every other child would do. He was loving life, he was just tired.

"He beat cancer three times. I thought nothing could take him, but it took him on the sixth [of April]. It was really horrible."

Ms Boxall said £28,000 had been raised for a planned operation abroad that Lee never got the chance to have.

Part of the money was spent on his funeral and some of it will now be used for the charity, she added.

Source https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-48221374